ENVY wins Americas Ascension, earns spot in VCT

ENVY ENVY North America Rank #2 canezerra Alex Banyasz Eggsterr Inspire Hunter Schline P0PPIN Matteo Weber ion2x Ayan Rastogi defeated TSM TSM North America Rank #4 Timotino Timothée Lavigne Dupont stand-in alvinboy Alvin Hong stand-in seven Johann Hernandez gMd Anthony Guimond vora Jordan Pulwer 3-1 in the grand final of Americas Ascension 2025, claiming the trophy and securing their place in VCT Americas 2026 after a year of competition in Challengers.

The two North American squads were distinctly familiar with one another coming into this match, with it being their third encounter in this tournament and their seventh encounter this year. TSM had defeated ENVY in the Swiss stage, but ENVY came out on top in the upper final, seizing the double map ban advantage for the most important match of their year.

The best-of-five series began on ENVY's first pick of Abyss, where they had won 13-5 in their previous meeting. This time seemed set to go the same way as ENVY won 10 consecutive rounds on their defense after losing the pistol, consistently winning out duels and shutting down TSM's efforts on both sides of the map.

But TSM refused to give up, using the momentum from a second pistol win and multiple B site shutdowns to bring the score back to 11-7. ENVY eventually found success on B to go up to map point, but TSM continued to claw back in until ENVY closed out the map 13-11 in their last chance in regulation.

The next map was TSM's pick of Sunset. ENVY started with the first pistol, but TSM won the eco round with a hero Stinger and a 1v2 from gMd to firmly gain control over the half. ENVY managed a few more rounds through individual plays and an aggressive push through mid, but the half concluded with an 8-4 lead for TSM.

However, much like Abyss, a deficit at the half guaranteed nothing as ENVY rallied back from 10-4 to 10-8 with aggressive, confident entries. TSM stabilized with two rounds to go up 12-8, but it once again took the advantaged team until their last chance in regulation to win the map 13-11 after alvinboy denied Inspire's 1v2 attempt. alvinboy had a standout performance throughout the map, going 24/13/7 with 169 ADR on Cypher.

Bind was a map that TSM hadn't yet played in the tournament, frequently banning it or otherwise leaving it as the decider. Starting on their attack, they struggled to handle Inspire's Cypher setups, often burning down the clock or running into stacked sites. Eggsterr in particular capitalized on TSM's difficulties with his Yoru teleports for rapid rotations, ending what turned out to be a 10-2 half for ENVY with a 13/2/4 KDA, 181 ADR, and 100% KAST.

TSM started their defense with a pistol and a bonus conversion, but ENVY denied any hope of a comeback with a swift 13-6 victory. Inspire overtook Eggsterr in the end statistically, finishing the map with a 19/11/8 KDA, 1.60 rating, and 161 ADR to Eggsterr's 16/7/6, 1.48 rating, and 152 ADR.

The fourth and final map was Ascent, pitting ENVY's classic aggression represented by their Yoru-Waylay composition against TSM's signature Sage pick. ENVY started with the upper hand after a 3K from ion2x won them the first pistol and spurred them on to a 4-1 lead, forcing a TSM timeout. From there, things went back and forth as neither team could win two rounds in a row all the way to halftime, making it a 7-5 score in favor of ENVY.

In the final half, ENVY distinguished themselves as champions, winning every remaining round to take Ascent 13-5 and the series 3-1. ion2x, who already began the half at the top of the scoreboard, dominated the server as Omen with 12 kills and one death in those six rounds, including a critical 1v2 clutch to convert the bonus.

Four ENVY players racked up more than 60 kills apiece in the series, demonstrating the skill and confidence that had brought them to the peak of tier 2 in the first place. In terms of fragging, canezerra delivered with 77 total kills in four maps, 15 first kills, and 167 ADR.

After the trophy lift, the ENVY players reflected on their journey to VCT, beginning with their original identity as RANKERS RANKERS Inactive ion2x Ayan Rastogi P0PPIN Matteo Weber Eggsterr Inspire Hunter Schline canezerra Alex Banyasz that captured the attention of many almost one year ago.

“Right now, I'm just thinking [about] where we came from,” P0PPIN said in the post-match interview. “We are all ranked players, we came from ranked, playing the game every single day, grinding, passion, and now, we're here in Ascension and we won.”